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INDEPENDENCE OF CUBA 



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SPEECH 



fON. BENJAMIN F. BUTLEE, 



OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



JUNE 15, mo. 



WASHINGTON: 
F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 

REPORTERS AND TRINTERS OF THE DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 

1870. 



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INDEPENDENCE OF CUBA 



The House having under consideration the joint 
resolution (II. R. No. 329) in relation to the contest 
between the people of Cuba and the Government of 
Spain — 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts, said: 

Mr. Speaker : I should not trespass upon the 
patience of the House at this late hour of the 
debate, although up to this moment, under the 
rules of the House, no member of the House not 
being a member of the Committee on Foreign 
Relations has had a right to the floor — and I 
now hold it through the indulgence of my friend 
from Illinois, [Mr. Judd] — did I not view this 
Cuban question from a somewhat different 
stand-point from which it has been presented 
by other geutlemen during this debate, both as 
regards its relations to the administration of 
public affairs and in its personal aspects. 

I have ever been a friend and am now a 
friend of the independence of Cuba, and in 
favor of the annexation of Cuba to this coun- 
try. In 1850 I was a member of the order of 
the "Lone Star." I sympathized with Lopez 
and Crittenden, and was a warm personal 
friend of General Quitman, the leading friend 
of Cuba of that day. I have never since ceased 
to desire that Cuba and the West India Islands 
should become a part of this Republic. The 
studies of this question in that day taught me 
the importance of the islands between the two 
continents to this country. I believe for one 
that no country can be great without trop- 
ical possessions. What would England be to- 
day without her possessions in the East, from 
which she draws her wealth? All that there is 
left of Spain is Cuba and Porto Rico to give 
her power and wealth. All that is left of Por- 
tugal — but there is nothing left of power in 
Portugal since she lost Brazil. All that is left 
of the once powerful Netherlands, that dic- 
II tated maritime law to the world, are the Moluccas 
and Sumatra. Therefore, I desire to see every- 
where our arms, our laws, our liberties, civiliza- 
tion, and our power extended. And I hope 
that within my day I shall see the star:' and 
stripes floating as evidences of our control and 
beneficent power at the Isthmus of Darien; 



while the traveler at the north pole shall mis- 
take the radiance of its red and white for the 
glow of the Aurora. And I have no doubt of 
living, if to the allotted age of man, loug enough 
to see this prophetic hope fulfilled. 

And were I to-day to speak according to my 
sympathies and according to my wishes ; and 
were I to speak from my heart, and not from 
my judgment ; were I to speak as an individual 
without the responsibilities which I owe to 
society, and the part I am obliged to take in 
public affairs, I would say, let us have Cuba at 
any expense of blood and treasure. As I have 
before said to this House, let us have San 
Domingo and the other islands of the Antilles 
when we can get them. 

I now rise, therefore, to speak only because 
I believe the course taken in carrying on this 
war in Cuba, if war it can be called, has re- 
tarded and is this day retarding the independ- 
ence of Cuba and the consequent and subsequent 
annexation of that island to this country. When 
the rebellion in Cuba broke out, as an accom- 
paniment of the rebellion against the Spanish 
monarchy, I looked forward with confident belief 
that from that hour the independence of Cuba 
was achieved. I believed that her people would 
rush to arms ; I was certain in my own mind 
that there would be enough of brave and gal- 
lant men on her soil to break the power of 
Spain, as indeed there were if they had moved 
to separate from Spain ; but they did not, but 
preferred to revolutionize with the mother 
country. I sympathized with the movement in 
the direction of their freedom ; I watched every 
fluctuation of affairs there with the intensest 
interest as the news thereof were brought to us. 

I know that not only was that my own state 
of mind at that time, but it was the state of 
mind of all the highest officials of this Gov- 
ernment, who have been here maligned and 
abused as in complicity with the agents of 
Spain. Specially do I know, from certain 
personal knowledge, that that was the state of 
mind and feeling, as an individual citizen, of 
the able gentleman, the Secretary of State, 
who, as it appears from the charges made 
here, although he has passed through a long 



life of usefulness and high honor, although he 
has been Governor of the Empire State by 
the election of the people, although he has 
represented that State with great credit in the 
Senate of the United States, although in pri- 
vate fortune in condition so that he is far 
above any necessity or desire to add to his 
means — such man being Secretary of State, has 
not escaped the wholesale calumny dealt in. 
And we have been told here gravely on this 
floor that the secret of the action of that high 
officer, as the premier of this country, is a 
desire to give a paltry fee to his son-in-law. 

I was mere astonished and more shocked 
than I cau well describe when in the heat of 
debate my very good friend, the gentleman 
from Nevada, [Mr. Fitch,] said that such a 
story had gone abroad far and wide and had 
never been contradicted. Why, sir, I hold in 
my hand a New York newspaper, the contents 
of which should certainly be known to our 
Cuban friends, for that is their headquarters, 
dated January 12, 1870, from which, with your 
leave, Mr. Speaker, I will read a sentence or 
two. The first that I shall read is an extract 
from a letter written by Mr. Sidney Webster, 
who has the honor to be son-in-law of the dis- 
tinguished Secretary, a gentleman with whom 
I have been acquainted for many years. 
Although there are some things on which we 
have agreed to disagree, yet never upon any- 
thing which constitutes a gentleman and a man 
of honor. He writes, in a letter dated the 5th 
of January, 1870, and addressed to the Span- 
ish minister, Mr. Roberts, among other things 
which are entirely conclusive against this slan- 
der, as follows : 

" You are personally aware that for all services of 
my copartner and myself, up to December last, full 
payment was made, and that the whole amount raid 
to me for services in the successive years of 1867, 1868, 
and 1869, has been but §3,870 in currency, and this 
as compensation for labor in the courts, or connected 
with judicial proceedings of such quantity and char- 
acter as to justify me in saying that the fees asked 
and paid were reasonable, and within the sum usually 
paid for such services to members of the bar in the 
city of New York, such as it would be_ proper to 
charge to private clients having as large interests at 
stake, and as cau afford no possible ground of impu- 
tation when charged to a foreign Government. You 
are also aware that my professional connection with 
the Spanish Government began as far back as the 
year 1865, in the affair of the steamship Meteor and 
other matters growing out of hostilities between 
Spain and Chili, and of course had no possible rela- 
tion to present questions or to the present adminis- 
tration of this Government." 

To all these allegations Mr. Roberts, the 
Spanish minister, replies in the affirma.tive, and 
that the charges are all untrue. In the same 
paper will be found a letter from Edwards 
Pierrepont, the district attorney for New York, 
declaring that this fee was by far too little for 
the professional services rendered. That letter 
is as follows : 

Office of the United States Attorney 

FOE THE SoUTHEEN DISTRICT OF NEW YoKK, 

41 Chambees Street, January 10, 1870. 
My Dear Sir: Yours of this date is received. I 
would say in reply that the professional services of 
Mr. Webster rendered to the Spanish Government 
came under my observation. Those services were 
arduous, involving great responsibility, industry, 
nnd legal ability ; they were performed with the 



greatest fidelity to the Spanish Government, and with 
an efficiency and success which merited the highest 
approbation of his client. Considering the magni- 
tude of the interests which Mr. Webster represented, 
and the successful way in which he managed those 
interests, I would think 110,000 a reasonable fee for 
the services performed. 
Very truly, yours, 

EDWARDS PIERREPONT. 
E. W. Stocghton, esq. 

Thus it appears that four years before Mr. 
Fish had any connection with the present 
Administration, and three years before Cuba 
revolted, Mr. Webster had a retainer from the 
Spanish Government, was the attorney, in the 
ordinary course of business, of the Spanish 
Government, in matters arising out of the 
complications of that Government with Chili. 

Mr. FITCH. The gentleman will allow me 
a single remark. When I spoke upon this sub- 
ject yesterday I had never seen the contradic- 
tion of the statement to which I referred. I 
was under the impression that it had never 
been contradicted. I have no desire to do any 
injustice to the Secretary of State or to his 
son-in-law ; and in view of this contradiction 
I can do nothing less than retract the intima- 
tion which I made upon the floor of the House 
yesterday with reference to Mr. Webster having 
received a large fee from the Spanish Govern- 
ment for the peculiar and particular case of 
the release of the gun-boats, and to retract also 
the intimation that the Secretary of State has 
been improperly influenced in his action toward 
Cuba by the connection of his son-in-law with 
the gun-boat case. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. Mr. 
Speaker, I am glad to hear the gentleman's 
retraction. It does honor to his sense of jus- 
tice. I knew the truth only needed to be 
brought to his attention to secure his proper 
action to set the matter right. And, sir, if we 
had time to follow one after another these 
slanders, to which it has been thought best, in 
behalf of Cuba, to subject honorable men who 
are opposing the cause of Cuba in its present 
shape — though, as I insist, these slanders are 
actually doing it damage — we should find sim- 
ilar retractions attending the different steps of 
the investigation. 

Let me here refer to charges made affecting 
the character of another gentleman, a gentle- 
man whom I have been proud to call my friend 
for thirty years ; a gentleman who has held the 
highest offices short of the Presidency under 
the Government; a gentleman who formerly 
represented the district which I now represent 
on this floor ; a gentleman who was once the 
Attorney General of the United States ; a gen- 
tleman not surpassed in either hemisphere in 
learning and ability, and the peer of any one 
on this floor as a man of honor. We were 
told, if I understood the vailed and guarded 
charge, that he too, as the paid servant of 
Spain, had written the Spanish minister's let- 
ters to this Government, and that as paid attor- 
ney of the United States at the same time, in 
an inconsistent engagement, he had written 
the message of the President of the United 
States. Now, I happen to know — and I speak 
of what I do know — that that gentleman never 



knew that this message was to come in; bis 
first knowledge of it was after it had been read 
in this House. I know this from sources which 
cannot be mistaken. 

A Member. To whom do you refer ? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I refer 
to the gentleman to whom I understood my 
colleague [Mr. Banks] to refer ; and if I do 
my colleague wrong in my reference, I pause 
here that he'may set the matterright. I refer 
to Hon. Mr. Cusbing, of Massachusetts. 

Let me say another thing. Not only did he 
not write the President's message for pay, but 
I affirm that this same gentleman never received 
one dollar as a retainer or as pay for services 
from the Spanish minister directly or indirectly 
upon any occasion, whether as regards Cuba, 
or Chili, or Peru, or anything else, since this 
revolution broke out. My colleague must have 
been misinformed. I am certain thathe acted 
upon misinformation. He would not have pur- 
sued the course he did as regards this gen- 
tleman except upon misinformation. He is 
i wrong in the general and wrong in detail in 
this regard ; not willfully, not wittingly, but 
misiakenly. Mr. Cushing neither wrote the 
message nor knew that it was to be written. 
Thank Heaven, we have at present Attorneys 
General and Secretaries of State and Presi- 
dents who can write their own messages with- 
out the aid of any hired attorneys ! 1 repeat, 
that Mr. Cushing never knew the message was 
to be sent in, and that he never has acted as 
counsel in the matter or received one dollar as 
a fee, whether in gold or currency, from the 
Spanish Government since Cuba has been en- 
gaged in the contest with Spain. This much is 
due to personal friendship as well as to public 
duty. 

Now, sir, it is this course of those who have 
undertaken to represent Cuba that has pre- 
vented us from seeing brought about the inde- 
pendence of Cuba. If there had been no 
insurrection, if this insurrection had not sought 
to embroil this country, and thereby make 
Spain jealous of an apparent attempt to wrest 
from her the fairest jewel of her crown, I have 
no doubt that, as the result of the revolution 
in Spain, we should have seen Cuba free and 
ready to treat with us for annexation, as years 
ago was Texas. 

But this has been delayed. And how ? It 
has been because instead of sending out arms 
to Cuba, for Cuban men to fight with, more 
Cubans were assembled in New York than 
ever were in arms in Cuba in any one body. 
And what have they been doing there? Have 
they been deprived of sending arms to their 
neighbors in Cuba ? No. Let me say to you, 
what every member of the Cuban junta has 
been told officially from this Government, 
that if they chose to buy arms and ammuni- 
tion and munitions of war, so long as belli- 
gerency was not recognized, they could put 
those arms and munitions of war on a vessel 
which might sail out from New York, or any 
other port, under our flag unquestioned and 
unsearchcd until it reached within a marine 
league of the coast of Cuba. 



Mr. RANDALL. Is that of record? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. What does 
the gentleman say? 

Mr. RANDALL. Has our Government ever 
said so on the record ? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. Yes, sir; 
we said so when we passed the neutrality law. 

Mr. RANDALL. No generalities ; 1 want 
a specific answer. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. We have 
said so at all times. We say so now. I agree, 
if they want to send arms to Cuba, that they 
shall have every one they can pay for and as 
many as they can use. 

Mr. RANDALL. When and where has our 
Government said so ? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. Over and 
oveF again, sir. 

Mr. RANDALL. Where? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I say 
again, in the neutrality law, which probably the 
gentleman has never read. [Laughter.] 

Mr. RANDALL. I want the gentleman to 
state distinctly where he finds authority for 
what he has just said? 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I cannot 
yield any further. Let me say again that under 
the same law Cuba can send every man she can 
get to go in a ship from Boston or New York to 
the island of Cuba unsearched and untouched, 
with the full knowledge of and without hin- 
derance on the part of our Government, until 
she gets within a marine league of Cuba. 

Again, sir, the Cubans have exercised both 
powers, and can again, because it does not 
interfere with the neutrality act. The neutral- 
ity act is against sending armed expeditions; 
and the difficulty has been with all the expedi- 
tions sent out to Cuba by the junta that they 
have insisted, for the purpose of embroiling 
this nation in a war with Spain, on putting 
arms and men in the same vessel, with a single 
exception only, and that was iu the case of the 
privateer Hornet. When they wished to get 
her out what did they do? 

They kept the arms off of her and sent her 
to sea, and although our Government knew 
what was being done and knew very well where 
the vessel was going, just as they knew where 
the Spanish gun-boats were going, not being an 
armed vessel they did not interfere with her. 
She went outside, and took on her guns and 
arms and munitions of war, as she claims, and 
she might have been nowcruisingupon the high 
seas, the terror of Spain and of all other peo- 
ple, I doubt not, if it had not been that her 
captain got frightened at the risk he was run- 
ning in the service of an unacknowledged Gov- 
ernment, and put in at Wilmington ; and when 
she came there as an armed cruiser of an un- 
recognized power we had to do with her as 
we claimed that England should have done 
with the Alabama, alter she had escaped from 
Liverpool, when she came into Nassau or New 
Providence — we retained her. At the solicita- 
tion of the friends of Cuba she has since been 
returned to those who claimed her, upon the 
agreement that she shall not further attempt to 
violate our neutrality law. ,; Do not violate 



6 



any of our laws, do not undertake to embroil us 
with any other nation, and you may do as you 
please," has been the universal language of 
this Government to the Cubans. 

Now, one word in reference to the Spanish 
gun- boats, of which so much has been said 
which is unjust to our Government. I wish to 
state to gentlemen here that those Spanish gun- 
boats did not carry out to sea from New York 
a single gun or a single arm, except perhaps 
there may have been one in the pockets of 
their officers. They were allowed to go out 
unarmed vessels, as the Hornet went out, under 
the conditions recmired by our laws. Their can- 
non were put into another vessel, and shipped 
as merchandise, just as we have cleared over 
and over again ships for the Cubans filled with 
like merchandise. There will be no trouble to 
Cuban expeditions if they will only not put their 
arms and their men on board the same ship, 
so as to make it an armed expedition. There 
is not a man of them who does not know that 
they can ship arms. I take it that the New 
York Sun would be a good authority for Cuba, 
if not good authority for anybody else. The 
Sun says: 

"Last October Secretary Fish, after a protracted 
interview with General Grant, told a Cuban gentle- 
man that there was no law to prevent the shipment 
of arms to Cuba for the use of the insurgents. Not- 
withstanding this declaration, the Junta Cubana 
deferred shipping war supplies openly, for they had 
no faith in anything that Secretary Fish might say 
after he had ordered the seizure of the Catharine 
Whiting, which vessel was libeled solely on the 
ground that she was about to carry arms to the 
Cuban insurgents. 

"Determined to know how far they could go with- 
out violating the neutrality laws, the junta determ- 
ined to ship a small cargo of arms and ammunition. 

"Mr. Grinncll told them he would give clearance 
to a man-of-war loaded down with arms and muni- 
tions of war, provided the vessel carried no more 
men than its customary crew. 

"The next thing done was to purchase a small 
schooner, and place on board a small cargo of arms. 
A large vessel and cargo were not risked, for the 
junta believed that though Secretary Fish said they 
could ship them, and Collector Grinnell said he would 
clear the vessel, the United States marshal would 
not permit her departure." * * * * * 

" Marshal Harlow was invited to go on board the 
schooner. The marshal examined the ship's papers, 
found them 'all right,' and said he had no obstacle 
to place in the way. At four p. m. the schooner, the 
Maria, Captain Imgard, sailed for Cuba with twelve 
hundred muskets and a due proportion of cartridges 
and other munitions. 

" The Government was duly informed of what was 
going on last evening. The State Department tele- 
graphed that if all was regular as represented no 
hinderance could be placed in the way. 

" This is all the Cubans ask. They need no more." 

Now, I commend that article to the gen- 
tlemen on the other side who ask questions, 
together with the proverb that " Fools may ask 
questions which philosophers cannot answer." 

Now, sir, we are asked to do — what? As 
I read the resolutions of the minority and of 
the majority of the committee — and I beg their 
pardon all round for saying so — they just es- 
cape being nothing at all by being mischievous ; 
for they provide nothing in the world that is 
practical. Only one thing do they tend to do, 
and that is to embroil us in a quarrel with Spain. 
And gentlemen get up and say, " Well, are we 
afraid of Spain ? Are we not ready to have a 
war with Spain, we. so great a Power !" 



I answer to that, as a Fourth of July ora- 
tion business, yes ; but as a statesman, deal- 
ing with high questions of State, I say, no! 
And why? Because Spain is just in a con- 
dition to desire war with us, s. nation of 
greatly superior power, upon any fair and 
just and honorable pretense. See what is 
her condition. She has a Government onby 
provisional, in a transition state, not with any 
assured fixity, and with no hold upon the peo- 
ple. But if Spain was brought into a war with 
this country on any fair pretext, what would 
be its effect upon the present regency? It 
would rally around that Government all her 
people. It would unite them by a common 
bond of patriotism. It would give the Spanish 
Government prestige at home. It would make 
the regency a dynasty. It would more than 
compensate for that prestige Spain would lose 
in consequence of our taking Cuba from her. 
She sees that she would lose Cuba, and, in my 
judgment, Cuba is lost to her already. 

Let us see, gentlemen, how we ourselves are 
situated, whether we are ready to go into the 
contest; for we are hereto take care of,, the 
interests of our own country first of all ; we 
are sent here for that purpose solely. Foreign 
relations are, by the Constitution, committed 
to the Executive. We have a debt of over 
twenty-five hundred million dollars. Twelve 
hundred million dollars of that debt are held 
abroad in the shape of bonds of this Govern- 
ment. We are seeking to fund our debt at a 
lower rate of interest. The bankers of Europe 
do not desire that we shall fund our debt at a 
lower rate of interest than it is now paying, 
because they would, in short, be obliged to take 
a four per cent, bond for a six per cent, one, 
and they do not doubt our ability to pay. And 
if Spain could only strike up a little war with 
us, or even a rumor of war, it would be a pre- 
text for the moneyed men not to take any 
bonds atalower rate of interest, and so an end 
of funding ; and if there should be any war that 
amounted to anything, it would furnish a ne- 
cessity for our issuing more bonds, in order to 
meet the expenses which would be entailed 
upon us by a war. 

Therefore, it is to the advantage of European 
capitalists to have us get into a war with Spain, 
because they know full well that our resources 
are such that whatever interest our bonds may 
bear we will be sure to pay ; and they would be 
glad to have the opportunity to make another 
speculation in purchasing our bonds for forty 
to sixty cents on the dollar, as they did during 
the late war. It is apparent, therefore, that 
there is every inducement for Spain, provided 
she can find a plausible pretense, to get into 
war with us, and that, too, without infringing 
the interests of the capital of Europe. 

I do not know that this language of mine is 
very diplomatic ; perhaps quite the reverse. 
But I tell you exactly what presses on my 
mind ; let it have its legitimate effect on you. 
That being the condition of things, are we not 
the veriest — I will not use bard words, how- 
ever — are we not extremely unwise if we give 
such an opportunity for injury to the coun- 



try, when we are not called upon to give it? If 
it be said that we are called upon to give that 
opportunity, let me ask, why are we so called 
upon? My colleague [Mr. Banks] says that 
we are called upon because there are one mil- 
lion five hundred thousand people struggling 

I in Cuba for liberty and independence against 
one hundred thousand natives of Spain who 
are supporting the Spanish cause. Let me not 
misstate the gentleman. He says, ' ' There are 
one million six hundred thousand souls in 
Cuba, and of that number one million five 
hundred thousand, nearly all the Cuban popu- 

\ lation, are in sympathy with this contest." Yet 
he tells us in the very next breath that of the 

\ one hundred thousand Spanish inhabitants of 
that island thirty thousand have volunteered 
to support the authority of Spain ; that, in addi- 
tion, they hold all the offices and constitute the 
greater portion of the army. Now, is not that 
a pretty large proportion of volunteer soldiers — 
thirty thousand out of one hundred thousand 
inhabitants, men, women, and children? 

Mr. BANKS. That is the statement in the 
documents that have been sent us. 
Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I do not 

/ say the gentleman made his statement without 
his documents. But I ask, if such is the state- 

k ment in the documents, of what value are the 

■ documents? Are we to involve ourselves in a war 

j with Spain on the proposition that there are one 
hundred thousand Spaniards in Cuba, of whom 
thirty thousand have volunteered as soldiers to 
support the authority of Spain ? Does the gen- 
tleman understand the force of the figures he 
is giving us? He says the whole amount of 
the population of Cuba is one million six hun- 
dred thousand, of which six or seven hundred 
thousand are slaves, leaving less than a million 
whites altogether. Now, if you allow the same 
proportion of volunteering that there was in 
our war, which, with all our patriotism and 
bounties, never amounted to one in twenty of 
the population, the result would be that the 
thirty thousand volunteers in the island of Cuba 
would represent a population of six hundred 
thousand. So, on the gentleman's own show- 
ing, if he will now apply a little arithmetic to 
his statement and not be misled by documents 
which perhaps are made to mislead, he will 
find that a majority of the inhabitants of Cuba 
are opposed to this insurrection, and opposed 
to it for the same reason. I suppose, that I am — 
that it is hurtful to the cause of the independ- 
ence of Cuba. 

Again, he tells us, to show how little we must 
be carried along by the rhetoric of my friend, 
which was exceedingly able and adroit, and for 
which I give him high praise — he tells us in his 

1 Bpeech of yesterday that he had the record of 
two hundred battles. 

Mr. BANKS. Nearly two hundred. 
i Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. He states 

lin his report that "owing to the imperfect 

means of communication possessed by the 

Cubans only the principal actions in which they 

aro engaged have been reported." He states 

Jj/dt this rebellion or insurrection broke out on 



the 11th of October, 1868, and that the last 
fights in regard to which reports have been 
received took place in Bvecember, 1SG0, and 
January, 1870. Therefore, the records of 
these principal battles extend only over about 
fifteen months. That would give us, for two 
hundred battles, at the rate of one principal 
battle every two and a quarter days, Sundays 
included. Now, if any of us believe that, we 
ought to be in favor of recognizing the inde- 
pendence of Cuba; for if any people will fight 
one "principal battle " every two and a quar- 
ter days, including Sundays, church time and 
all, for fifteen months, they ought to be free,! 
Sir, is it on such statements of facts as these 
that we are asked to condemn our Government 
for its action hitherto In regard to Cuba? 

Let me state a few facts that will not be 
denied, which demonstrate that the Cuban war, 
with its battles every other day, is all a fiction 
on paper. The first great fact is that there 
never has been so much tobacco and sugar 
raised in the island of Cuba during its history 
as during the last year of this devastating war ; 
there never has been so much commerce with 
that island as during the last year ; there never 
has been so great financial prosperity in that 
island as during the last year, as shown by the 
fact that the bank of Havana, which bears all 
the expenses of the Government in that island, 
has furnished the means for carrying on the 
contest against the revolutionists, and has con- 
tinued to pay gold at its counter, which we 
could not do in our war. 

Now, how can that be if this war is going 
on ? The difficulty is there is no war in Cuba ; 
there can be no war in Cuba ; and Mr. Jordan 
tells us there is no war, because he says there 
are only ten thousand men of the insurgents in 
arms, and they are shut out from the rest of 
the world. What is the proposition of these 
friends of Cuba? It is that we shall recoguize 
a nation which they admit is shut out from the 
rest of the world. Shut out by what? A cordon 
of Spanish bayonets. What is meant by recog- 
nition of a nation? It means that we should 
acknowledge Cubans an equal belligerent with 
Spain, with the rights that appertain to a na- 
tion ; and if she does not behave well in that 
position, that we may interfere, to make her 
behave properly in carrying on that war which 
we declare to exist. How shall we send an 
embassador to her upon such a;: errand, unless 
we get a passport to go to her through the Span- 
ish lines? 

My friend from Minnesota, [Mr.WiLKi 
in the exuberance of his rhetoric, in the per- 
oration of his address last evening told us that 
the Cuban insurrection has no towns; that it 
has been driven from the towns and from the 
sea-coast, and, like some of the Scottish chief- 
tains, has lied to the mountains, and is now 
carrying on the battle in the clefts of the rocks. 
Well, sir, what a nation that would be to rec- 
ognize, a nation in the cleft of a rock! 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. 1 
may be allowed five minutes more. 



Mr. BENTON. I move that the time of the 
gentleman be extended for five minutes. 

There was no objection. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. I only 
wish that time to notice one topic which has 
been very much misrepresented. I have here 
half a dozen Cuban bonds of $500 each, more 
or less, which were taken from the pockets of 
different newspaper reporters — for what pur- 
pose they were there you can easily imagine — 
not by force, but by paying for them fifteen 
cents on the dollar. Having got all of these 
bonds I want, I am going to "bear the mar- 
ket." [Laughter.] I propose from these very 
bonds to show that there is no independent 
Government in Cuba, and never has been. 
Why, sir, the insurgents have not a Govern- 
ment in Cuba strong enough to issue a bond ; 
and that can be done by about the weakest 
Government on earth. Lot me read the la"- 
guage of one of these bonds. Tlu fa f tnc 
bond is in Spanish ; but for fear that tl in'o 
whose hands the bonds would pass lr 
understand Spanish, the contract it, u, .. 
on the back. Those who got up these bonds 
could not have counted on a very large circu- 
lation of them among members of Congress, 
because we all understand Spanish. [Laugh- 
ter.] The translation on the back of these 
bonds reads thus : 

" Tho republic of Cuba, through Jos6 Morales 
Lemus, president of the Central Republican Junta 
of Cuba and Porto Rico, acting under special author- 
ity, hereby acknowledges itself bound to the bearer 
in the sum of $500, with interest at the rate of seven 
per cent, per annum from the date hereof; said in- 
terest to be paid at tho dates and upon the conditions 
following, namely, after the ratification of a treaty 
of peace between the Government of Spain and the 
republic of Cuba; or after the overthrow of the 
authority of the Spanish Government in the island 
of Cuba; or after the recognition by the Government 
of the United States of America of the political inde- 
pendence of the island of Cuba," <fee. 

In other words, and this is what the President 
so properly animadverts upon in his message 
to us, these men come into this country and 
issue these bonds, every one of which is abet 
on the action of this Government. The Presi- 
dent does not say or intimate that gentlemen 
here have been influenced by them, but com- 
plains that a pretended government should 
have issued them. I am sure no member of 
this House has been so influenced. My col- 
league [Mr. Banks] was long since known as 
an old friend of Cuba along with me ; and we 
are not the kind of men to whom they give 
bonds to influence our action. 



Mr. BANKS. .1 am sorry you did not keep 
up with me. 

Mr. BUTLER, of Massachusetts. No, sir; 
I could not do that, I agree. You go too fast 
and too far. 

Again, my gallant friend from Illinois [Mr. 
Logan] was an old friend of Cuba ; and no 
man ever approached him with bonds or ever 
thought of it. They never approach with 
such bonds as these a man who knows any- 
thing. 

But, sir, has anybody received any of these 
bonds ? I propose not to talk about any testi- 
mony in the committee, but I have within my 
knowledge evidence which enables me to assert- 
as a fact that $2,000,000 of these bonds were 
last September put into the hands of the Peru- 
vian minister upon a contract that they were 
to be paid over to a lobby agent if he would 
procure from the President a recognition of 
the belligerency of Cuba. That failing, and 
the attempt was pressed in every way, the 
same $2,000,000 or another $2,000,000 of 
bonus was, on the 8th of December, deposited 
in the Union Safe Deposit Company in a sealed; 
package, under the hand of Francisco Fesser, 
the treasurer of Cuba, and another lobby age™ 
of this city, who will be hereafter compelled 
to answer upon this question ; and thosa bonds 
were so deposited for the purpose of influenc- 
ing the decision of this House. That deposit 
was not taken out until the investigation on 
the subject was undertaken by this House. 

No man has received any of these bonds!. ! 
Let me show why, for I desire to exhibit the 
facts for the benefit of the country. Although 
that man who said he ''bought and sold u£ 
like sheep" was found with $20,000 of these 
bonds in his pocket, no present member of 
Congress ever received any! When one oj 
two attempts to place these bonds were mad* 
upon members of Congress the men who mad< 
such attempts were treated exactly as thei 
should have been. They were ordered to ge 
out with their stuff, or they would be sent t< 
the bottom of the stairs. 

I find nothing to complain of in the actiot 
of my associates in this behalf. What I d> 
complain of is this ill-advised action of th 
Cuban junta in employing scalawags, lobbyists * 
and shysters around this Capitol to put us i 
such a position that every member who vote 
upon the question of Cuba must do so with > 
bet dependent on the result of his vote. 

[Here the hammer fell.] 




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